Communications aboard the S/V Jule III

Updated 2 August 2003

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We were sipping our third coffee while admiring Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas. The sooty terns were still making their yearly mating racket on Bush Island. We saw Pat approach the Jule III in his dingy. We had just received an email from his real estate broker and he was coming to pick it up. We were the only one at anchorage that could 'do' email. There are no phones at the Dry Tortugas. Well, there is one, a satellite phone, that cost $US 15.00 per minute. Cell phones don't work at the DTs as the closest tower is 70 nm away. The VHF is pretty much useless except for intra-anchorage chatter and very weak weather broadcasts. So how did we do our e-mail thing?

Earlier that year we were at anchor in the Gunn Cay, Bahamas. It was a nasty day and we cut the day short to wait for better weather. Bob received a call on his cellular phone. There was a computer security incident at the customer site. The customer needed Bob to investigate. Bob did his security thing by logging on the infected computer. Six hours later Bob emailed the forensics report back to Washington.

Last week, we were at anchor in Hudson Creek, Little Choptank River, Chesapeake Bay as part of our recommissioning excercise. We would be driving to Florida later in the month and wanted to see if S/V Chatauqua was still in Vero Beach. Before the 0830 Cruisers Net on 8152 MHz, Ann called Chatauqua on the SSB to determine Chatauqua's location. Sure enough, Chatauqua would be in Vero for the next several weeks.

Reliable communications is essential for both personal and business needs. We rely on the following for our communications needs:

  • Digital cellular phone (Verizon) for voice and data $$'s
  • Analog cellular phone ('bag phone') for voice and data $$$$'s
  • SSB for voice and data
Of course the most convenient is cellular telephone. However, there are many places (e.g., Dry Tortugas) where cellular doesn't work.

Digital Cellular Phone (DCP)

DCP is great when it works! We use Verizon which provides pretty good coverage (for digital) along the east coast of the U.S. However, don't expect much when you are more than 10 miles from a supporting city, larger town, or interstate highway. Offshore it may work 15-20 miles. Also, don't expect the data network (e.g.,sending and receiving email). Florida and the large cities had pretty reliable data networks but other places were 'pot luck'.

Speaking of data, DCP provides fast (by mobile standard) transfer speeds (14.4 kbps). All you need is a data capable phone and a special cable. Your local DCP provider can give you details on how to set it up.

Analog Cellular Phone (ACP)

Don't confuse ACP with the analog mode of your DCP. They are different! For instance, I could use my 'bag phone' in the Bahamas at the normal roaming cost ($1.00 per minute). My DCP in either mode did not work. Other cruisers had the same experience. ACP aboard ship can provide increased range over DCP (40 miles +) because (1) it transmits more power and (2) you can mount its antenna at the masthead (in our case the mizzend mast head). Data is possible with an add-on special modem (check you phone provider) but the data rate is only 1.2 - 4.8 kbps. At a $1 per minute, it can really add up!

Single Sideband

SSB is famous for long range communications. Though the voice quality is poor, the message can usually be received at the other end. If you are an amateur radio operator (ham), you can use 'phone patches' to talk to non-hams. The only restriction is that all conversations must be non-business related and can not be coded (e.g., encrypted).

Data communications in the form of email is available by adding a Pactor II modem (e.g., SCS PTC-IIe) modem to your SSB rig. For marine band operations, we use Sailmail. A $200 yearly contribution is necessary to use this service. Hams can use the freely available Winlink for email. Of course there are limitations on both, the bigest being speed. Transmission rates of 50 to 500 bps are all you can count on. With the addition of Pactor III, 3 fold speed increases are anticipated. We are currently experimenting with Pactor III.

For those interested in installing data over SSB/Amateur Radio, check out Sailmail's primer. It will give you all the info you need for a successful installation. We had some minor problems at some frequencies (some distortion). Adding additional ferrite cores at the modem-transceiver link fixed it.

A New Solution

We thought we would need lots of money, power, and deck space for satellite systems. GlobalStar, Iridium, and Inmarsat are commercially available solutions. We found GlobalStar's new offering in equipment and service to be quite attractive. They have a US and Caribbean package that competes favorably with cellular with much greater coverage. The data facility is also attractive at 9600 bits per second. The 'hands free' option has a an external antenna that can be mounted on our dodger.

OK, so we bought one. Initial tests were quite favorable. During Voyage 2002 we used it extensively especially in the Bahamas. On the hook and in/around settlements it worked most of the time. We would occasionally encounter a small (1-2 minute) break in communications. However, in large cities, such as Nassau, we would have outages 20-25 % of the time. Not sure why. The Internet access was quite good (except for the outages mentioned above). All in all, a cost effective solution for distance cruising!